On the night of 2–3 December 1984, around forty tonnes of toxic methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. The gas drifted over densely populated shanty settlements that had grown up directly against the plant's perimeter, killing thousands within days and injuring and disabling hundreds of thousands more. Failures of plant maintenance, safety systems and emergency warning compounded the catastrophe.
As the world's worst industrial disaster, it exposed the lethal danger of allowing hazardous industry and dense housing to sit side by side, strengthening the case for buffer zones, hazard-based land-use controls and stricter industrial siting and zoning worldwide.
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